Traffic returns to normal in Mirpur after workers dispersed, no baton charge: DMP joint commissioner

Police have restored normal traffic in the capital's Mirpur after removing workers who had blocked roads and protested since the morning. On Sunday (1 November) at noon, after the protesters were removed from the road, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Joint Commissioner Mohidul Islam briefed reporters on the overall situation.

The DMP official said law enforcement used sound grenades and whistles to bring the situation under control and disperse the protesters. He said sound grenades were used only to disperse the protesters; there was no baton charge of any kind.

Mohidul Islam also said no one was detained in the incident and no police member was injured. He noted that the road was quickly made fit for traffic with a sufficient number of police members and officers to reduce the extreme suffering of ordinary people.

The protest was being held demanding that the minimum monthly wage be raised to 30,000 taka. The DMP joint commissioner said a wage board has already been formed to finalise a new wage structure for the workers and its work is under way through the set process.

He said that even after the matter was explained, the protesters refused to leave the streets. In such a situation, police suspect that an anti-government or anti-state circle may have become involved behind the movement and is trying to deteriorate the law and order situation. He presented this to reporters as a police suspicion.

Earlier, at around 9am on Sunday, workers began the protest by taking position at the Mirpur-10 roundabout. The movement quickly spread to Mirpur-11, Mirpur-12 and Prashika Mor and adjoining areas.

When several thousand factory workers came out onto the roads, all traffic on the roads concerned came to a complete standstill. Field reports said that when police tried to remove the protesters to restore traffic, repeated chases and counter-chases and clashes broke out between the two sides, and police used tear gas, sound grenades and water cannon.

On the field situation, Pallabi Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Jalal Uddin said workers had gathered at various important points in Mirpur since the morning and kept the roads closed. He said at the time that additional police had been deployed to restore overall order and efforts were under way to open the roads to reduce public suffering.

Although the Ministry of Labour has already formed a minimum wage board to determine a new wage structure for the workers, the workers had continued the movement, firm on their demand for a 30,000 taka wage. At noon, after police removed the protesters from the road, traffic in Mirpur returned to normal.

Earlier on Saturday too, a continuous road blockade was held from 10:30am in the Mirpur-10 and Mirpur-11 areas with the same demand. That afternoon, a section of the protesters went to the commercial area near the shrine at Mirpur-1 and clashed with security staff of Himalaya Garments under Shah Ali Police Station. The factory and the adjoining Baghdad Shopping Complex were vandalised at that time.

On Saturday afternoon, angry workers also threw brickbats targeting a multi-storey garment factory in the Kalshi Adarshanagar area under Pallabi Police Station, according to the report. Police said that after Sunday noon, Mirpur's roads were made fit for traffic.